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About Randers FC

Randers FC is a Denmark professional Football (soccer) team based in Randers, which plays in the top-flight Danish Superliga championship. Founded as a merger on January 1, 2003, the club builds upon the license of Randers Freja, a former three-time Danish Cup winning team. Randers FC play their games at Essex Park Randers, which has a 12,000 spectator capacity.

History

The club was formed on January 1, 2003, as a merger between Dronningborg Boldklub (founded 1928), Hornbaek Sportsforening (founded 1945), Kristrup Boldklub (founded 1908 in football (soccer)), Randers Sportsklub Freja (founded 1898 in football (soccer)), Randers KFUM (founded 1920 in football (soccer)) and Vorup Frederiksberg Boldklub (founded 1915), continuing Randers Freja's (at the time) 1st division-team.

The First Years and Cup Success

In the first season as a newly created club Randers FC ended in fourth place in the Danish 1st Division with 51 points. The captain of the Danish national team that won the European Football Championships in 1992, Lars Olsen, was coach of the team. The following year the team ended in second place with 66 points and was promoted to the country's best league, the SAS Liga.

With only 24 points in 2004–05 season in the SAS Liga Randers FC finished last.

In the 2005–06 season, Randers FC redeemed themselves. The club secured promotion back to the SAS League with 61 points and also won the Danish Cup with a 1–0 victory over Esbjerg in the final at Parken Stadium on May 11, 2006. Randers was the first team since 1974 who managed to win the Danish Cup although playing in the second highest league in Denmark.

In mid 2005 in football (soccer), they brought in former Danish national team midfielder Stig Tøfting on a free transfer (soccer), after Aarhus GF, his childhood-club, refused to let Tøfting play for them (even for free), because of his violent background with several sentence (law)s.Tøfting was appointed Assistant Coach in November 2006.

In the 2006–07 SAS Ligaen Randers FC achieved a 8th place with 38 points and great adventures in the UEFA Cup trophy victory over the season before. The club met IA Akranes of Iceland, FBK Kaunas of Lithuania and major club SC Fenerbahce from Turkey.

Before the start of the new season (2007–08) Randers signed former English National player Colin Todd as new manager. Randers started the season in great fashion by winning their first four matches (most notably a 5–0 win against AaB Fodbold).

In the second half of the 2007–08 season Randers continued to improve in the Danish league. With new signings Marc Nygaard and Søren Berg expectations grew as the season progressed. Randers improved on last season's 8th place by securing a 6th place following a 2–1 win against Brondby IF in the last match of the season.

The 2008/2009 season started in promising fashion for the club as they started off with a 3–1 win against the local rivals AGF. Randers continued the good start and went to play 1–1 a draw with FC Copenhagen. In the third round Randers was to play Brondby IF away. The club had never defeated Brondby IF away before. Randers won the game 0–3 following goals from Carsten Fredgaard, Bedi Buval and Tidiane Sane. After the five first rounds Randers was still undefeated. However at the winter break Randers was placed mid-table.

Up and Down Years

On November 4, 2008 Randers announced that former Danish international John Jensen (aka John "Faxe" Jensen) would become new manager from July 1 following the ending of Colin Todd's contract. However Colin Todd expressed his frustration about how Randers had dealt with the situation and openly criticised the club for putting him in a difficult situation.

Jensen ended up taking the place as manager six months before schedule due to the Club having reached an agreement with the then present manager Colin Todd. Jensen was officially announced new manager on 5 January. Jensen started his time in Randers FC in great fashion, winning the first league game of the season against local rivals AGF 2–1. However, the club failed to sustain the winning form when they went to draw against Vejle BK and thereafter lost the following 3 games to the top three sides OB, FCK and BIF. The team's losing streak reached a culmination point when they lost 1–6 to FC Nordsjaelland.

However, the club responded well to the bad figures and went to win their following five games and thereby reached a new club record for most won games in a row. The season ended with a 3–3 draw away against Danish Champions FC Copenhagen, and 5th place (highest league rank in the club's history). Marc Nygaard claimed the golden boot for 16 goals during the season. Morten Nordstrand was later credited for a goal on penalty in the final match, and also had a goal tally of 16 , but Nygaard was awarded the title as he was the first to reach the 16 goals.

Randers FC and Faxe decided that Tøfting was not the right choice as assistant manager, and on 1 May 2009 the club announced that the contract of Tøfting would not be extended. On June 2 the club announced two of Jensen's former colleagues from the European Champions of 1992 team, Henrik Larsen and Flemming Povlsen as the new assistant managers. Larsen as 1st assistant manager and Povlsen as assistant focused on the attack.

After a catastrophic start to the 2009–10 season with only 2 points from 11 games in the league, John Jensen and his assistants were released from their contracts.

Ove Christensen was appointed new head coach for Randers FC for the remaining of the 2009/2010-season.He was given the objective to save Randers FC from relegation.

Randers was counted as relegated in the winter break by the media and experts. However a historic comeback with 16 games without defeat, meant that their topflight status was to be decided on the final day of the season. A loss to Brøndby IF would mean, that if Aarhus GF won their game against Odense BK, the best team of the spring season would be relegated. OB won 0–3 and Randers lost their first match in the second half of the season 1–3, so Randers kept their status, and Ove Christensen delivered, what most people thought was impossible – a save from relegation. Yura Movsisyan was the key in Rander's survival as he scored 7 goals in 13 games.

When Ove Christensen arrived he gave the squad an overhaul and 9 players were released or sold in the winter break of 2009–10 season. He also made some signings:Anders Egholm from SønderjyskE, Morten Karlsen from FC Nordsjælland and Søren Jensen (footballer) on loan from Odd Grenland.

Ove Christensen signed a new one year contract as head coach on May 17, 2010.

However in the following season Ove Christensen could not follow up un the success and was fired after a loss to Brøndby IF. Peter Elstrup and Allan Kuhn was taken in as caretakers but could not prevent Randers FC from being relegated at the end of the season. Michael Hemmingsen was named new head coach with the first task to bring Randers FC back to the Superliga

International Competitions

The 2006–07 season Randers FC managed to qualify for the 2006–07 UEFA Cup as National Cup winners.

The 2009–10 season the club was invited to participate in the 2009–10 UEFA Europa League qualifying phase and play-off round due to 2nd place in the Danish league Fair Play ranking – behind 2008–09 champions FC Copenhagen, who claimed the Champions League spot.

The 2010–11 season the club was invited to participate in the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League qualifying phase and play-off round due to 2nd place in the Danish league Fair Play ranking – behind 2009–10 champions FC Copenhagen, who claimed the Champions League spot.

Stadium

Randers Stadium

Randers Stadium was founded in 1961. It was built to hold 18,000 spectators and in 1969 a record of 16,500 people attended the UEFA Cup loss against 1. FC Köln.

AutoC Park Randers

AutoC Park has a capacity of 12,000 spectators. It was built by Arkitektfirmaet C. F. Møller and is established on the former Randers Stadion, partly finished in 2006 leaving the North Stand in its original form.

The current stadium attendance record is 11.824, set against Brøndby IF on May 16, 2010.

Supporters

The official supporters are The Blue Horses, however there are more fractions within the fanculture of Randers FC.

As a relatively new club, the supporters still have some way to establish a fan culture.